Hi Blog. We had a NGO FRANCA (Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens Association) meeting last Sunday in Sendai. We’ll be having another one this coming Saturday evening in Tokyo, so if you like what you read below, please consider coming to our meeting and joining our group.

We had a very productive meeting, talking for more than three hours on various aspects of making life better in Japan for NJ and NNJ (Non Native Japanese — an abbreviation I doubt will catch on). We came up with the following ideas for projects:

PROPOSED FRANCA PROJECTS

Having all family members of household listed on jūminhyō Residency Certificate regardless of nationality (currently under GOJ revision, proposed changes by July 2012).

Having koseki Family Registry forms include NJ under spouse column.

Eliminating requirements for jōji keitai, 24/7 carrying of the “Gaijin Card”, must present to authorities within set time period (3 days?).

Enough of these little “pinprick” protests and it becomes mendoukusai for the enforcers to have to deal with us. It’s already showing when you see apologetic border control bureaucrats (yes!), and hotel clerks who check us less and less frequently. We should stand up for ourselves more, and encourage others to do so. I will create an artery site a la debito.org/whattodoif.html called debito.org/pinprickprotests.html, offer downloadable bilingual text, and devote a blog entry to each category, linking them all together over time. Contributions welcome.